Position in chronology
SAA 01 194. The Royal Corps and Deportees at Harran (ABL 1073)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) [Ever] since I [came ...], a runaway [......] Nani (and) A[...], the cupbearer [of ...], the son of the father-in-law of [...]. I have made them enter the [royal] corps [...] of Harran on account of the [missing] cavalry[men]. Let the king enquire and investigate (the matter), and let them return the men to the royal corps. (14) As to the people of Nani about whom the king my lord wrote to me: "Give any of his people back to him!" — (18) The day he was deported, the Commander-in-Chief and Zeru- ibni called him and questioned him, saying: "Perhaps there is still some…
Source: Parpola, S. 1987. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I: Letters from Assyria and the West. SAA 1. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa01/P334718/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x]+⸢x x⸣+[x x x x x x] / [TAv] É ana-ku ⸢al*⸣-[lik-an-ni] / LÚ.ḫal-qu-ma ni-[x x x x x] / mna-a-ni ma-⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x] / LÚ.KAŠ.LUL [x x x x x x] / DUMU e-me-šú ša m⸢du?⸣-[x x] / ina UGU LÚ.ša—BAD-ḪAL-[MEŠ x x] / ina ⸢ŠÀ ki⸣-iṣ-ri ša [LUGAL x x] / ⸢x x ša*⸣ URU*.KASKAL-⸢ra⸣-[ni] / ú-⸢še*-ri*-ib*⸣-[šú-nu] / LUGAL liš-al lu-⸢ṣi⸣-[ṣi] / LÚ.ERIM-MEŠ ina ŠÀ ki-[iṣ-ri] / ⸢ša⸣ LUGAL lu-sa-ḫi-[ru]…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence under Sargon II, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 1, 1987). Letter from a governor or high official to the king of Assyria. ORACC text P334718.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334718). source
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 1987. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I: Letters from Assyria and the West. SAA 1. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa01/P334718/.
Related tablets
Related sources
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.
Part of the earliest known body of international diplomatic correspondence. Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay, was the lingua franca of Late Bronze Age statecraft — used between Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levantine vassals.